Reversing Visibility Index

Our Reversing Visibility Index measures how well a driver can see out the back of a car. We created this world's first index following the deaths of a number of small children in NSW from reversing cars in driveways. We found that rather than being a problem exclusive to 4WDs or SUVs, all cars have a "blind area" that could easily hide a child.How the tests are done

The test procedure used a laser pointing device, a dummy to represent an average adult size, a test cylinder to represent the shoulder height of an average two year old child, and a grid extended 1.8 x 15 metres to the rear of the vehicle.

The laser is directed through the rear window of each vehicle. The position where the laser is visible on the test cylinder is noted. This procedure is repeated for all positions on the grid. The results are analysed and an overall score is given. The best scores are awarded to the vehicles which have the most effective rear visibility.